Defiance going free-to-play next month

Oh yeah, Defiance! For all its cross-media promises, neither the TV show nor its related MMO shooter made a compelling case to visit the future Earth it depicted. We've danced the dance of MMO indifference before, and so at this point know the steps: Trion Worlds have announced that the game will relaunch as a free-to-play title next month.

"We've known this transition was coming for a long time, and we've been changing the game drastically to address these issues prior to launch. Defiance was never a subscription game, so many of the issues endemic to free to play transitions were simply not an issue for us."

Subscription MMOs going free-to-play is a pretty regular occurrence, but Defiance only ever required a one-time purchase, much like Guild Wars 2. Even so, the popularity of free-to-play titles does suggest that any up front cost can be a major barrier to entry.

Defiance's free-to-play transition will take place on June 4th for PC.